TSG, Christmas letter, & overandoverandunder

[rthstewart]

So, someone out there rec'd TSG Part 1 in her Christmas letter to overandoverandunder who is an evolutionary biologist and she particularly enjoyed the hot Eagle sex (diving death spirals) and cursing hummingbirds.  I have no idea who the two of you are -- anonymity being anonymous, and further have no idea if you ever come over here.  But if you do, thank you with all my heart.  

I started The Stone Gryphon story cycle for so very many reasons -- a celebration of this creation, a celebration of a multi-cultural vision, and wondering what it would be like if the sexually prolific holly trees in my neighbor's yard really could walk and talk.  More than that, I was wondering, if you grew up in a place were there were sexually prolific holly trees, lived in that place for years and years, and became an adult there, what would happen when you came back to a place that was so very different?

I get flack for this vision -- see above regarding indiscriminate holly trees and hot raptor sex -- and the assumption that such exposures probably change how one views such things as an adult.  I also get incredible support from those who are looking for something different, and I am deeply grateful for every word of support I receive.  To you, overandoverandunder and your Christmas letter correspondent, the commentary like that which you provided, and the story you told behind the review, are precious and the highest sort of compliment I could ever receive.  Feedback and reviews are not why I started this, and are not really why I keep writing.  But, readers like you provide me with a tangible voice in the lonely wilderness of authorship.  I realize that yes, there are people out there who share the vision or some part of it, and who are taking the journey with me. 

P.S: And that bit about the rare, delicate fish?  Maybe the coelacanth?  We are also pretty fond of the megamouth shark and that strange octopus off Indonesia that can mimic sea snakes, cuttlefish, and flounders.
PPS: You made me cry, but in a good, aw shucks, thanks ever so much sort of way. 

Comments

[montycrowley.livejournal.com]

Well, you certainly take all of the work out of stalking you! ♥

I always listen to what intrikate88 tells me because she rocks my socks off on a regular basis. Katie, hon, I'm just going to steal all of your friends. Are you okay with that? 'Cause I'm totally going to steal this one. MWAHAHAHA. I WILL TAKE ALL OF THE WORK OUT OF THE TWO OF US BEING TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE.

I hope I didn't mislead you - I'm not actually a grownup evolutionary biologist yet. I'm actually just a baby one - I'm not on any papers yet, or even in grad school. But my boss is famous-ish, and it's my job and my life, so I get to call myself a biologist.

And yes, I loved your story. You'll be glad to know that variants of your scientist characters are alive and well and quietly going mad in the twentyfirst century. For example, today my entire lab wandered around campus with a collection of dinosaur fossils and my boss suddenly announced that he was the Pied Piper of Paleontology and started skipping. which was awesome.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Awwwww. Rth FTW. I was guessing (and hoping) Intrikate was behind this!! I further had figured the graduate school or doing post doc work somewhere. So, stalking in reverse, I guess. It's not often that reviews make me weep, But, the way that you described what it was like Then, to be a naturalist, all blood and dissection and smells was precisely what I tried to capture with Richard, Mary, and Polly, traversing the desert looking for what the teeth of what will eventually be labeled sarcosuchus imperator on camels and plucking off leeches and listening to Howler monkeys when what you really want to do is sleep and no gin for the quinine. It was precisely the feel that I wanted to capture and you did it in a sentence whereas I took 90,000 words.

In this house, we think nothing but awesome of the story of the grad student who took a look at that ceolophysis cast at the subway stop below the ANH and thought maybe those weren't infant ceolophysis remains but something else in the stomach cavity. One child wanted to grow up to be a National Geographic Explorer In Residence just like Paul Sereno, we met Dr. Brady Barr, we've got an autograph from Dr. Holtz (The T. Rex MAN) AND my kid wanted to invite Nigel Marven to his birthday party, even if he knows he did not REALLY traverse prehistoric seas looking for mosasaurs and pleiosaurs on The Ancient Mariner.

Anyway, thanks so much for writing back. I'll probably take this off line via PMs, but really, I was floored and thank you. (You also, all unknowingly, helped me through something I couldn't figure out for Part 3, assuming I ever get Part 2 done).

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

DAMMIT WOMAN I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT WAS YOU. I GUESS YOU CAN STEAL MY FRIENDS IF WE ALL GET TO HAVE A GIANT LITERATURE-SCIENCE FUSION BRAIN ORGY THING. Which it appears we are already effectively doing? Man, I'm good. We'll be like the Bloomsbury Group but AWESOMER.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

Ohhh! If we're a more AWESOMER Bloomsbury group, we need a Patron! And a country house in Italy and in France! And an economist! Actually, I know two economists, but that would involve committing a cross over and involving Those Other Fandoms In Which I Dabble.

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhh yay contact!!!
(Because I have *totally* been stalking this whole thing myself, as an outside-source stalker)

You people make my life happy. People who love something and are interested in something so wonderful and who *do* something with it, something that creates contact and happiness and just plain awesome-ness.

*sigh*